Tuesday, October 17, 2006

When is a war not a war? Over 65,000 have died in Sri Lanka, the result of a war fought since 1983 by the terrorist group the Tamil Tigers. This year alone, 2000 have died. On Saturday, 90 Sri Lankan soldiers died in a homocide bombing attack. In all, 29 countries list the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) a terrorist organization. Minor countries, like the U.S., Britain, India, Australia, Canada, the EU, etc. But, apparently, not Bill Clinton.

Typical of the media coverage is this story. In August 2006 eight men, including three Canadians who traveled to New York for the purpose , were arrested when they tried to buy surface-to-air missles. CNN notes that, in addition, they tried to obtain classified information and hoped to remove the Tamil Tiger group from the U.S. terrorist organization list. Oddly -- or maybe not so oddly considering the renown CNN bias -- CNN did not refer to the group as terrorist, despite the fact that they have been on the State Department list since 1997 and Madeline Albright chose to keep them there. So, both Republicans AND Democrats acknowledge the Tamil Tigers as terrorists but the media still refers to them as "rebels."

The Times of London open worries "How can the world bring Tamil Tigers back to table?" The question is why would you want to?

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